Migrant workers living in Canada send almost four times as much to friends and family overseas as the federal government spends in official aid. According to the World Bank, remittances have surpassed foreign direct investment in some of the world’s least-developed countries.

Photographer-videographer Michel Huneault and journalist Sarah R. Champagne, a Montreal-based reporter with Le Devoir, are the winners of this year’s R. James Travers Foreign Corresponding Fellowship.

They looked at the impact of this do-it-yourself aid in a series called Monnaie d’échange